Monday, January 20
My camera says it was 8:09 am when I took this picture of a male Red-bellied Woodpecker enjoying some suet for breakfast.
Little did I know what fun I would have watching a bird fight during the next four minutes – after a European Starling decided he also wanted to have breakfast at the same suet block.
It got a bit noisy.
The female woodpecker (left) joined the mix while the male rested on the upper right.
The female ate in relative peace for a short time.
When the male returned to the suet, the fight intensified.
Ouch!
Now, maybe he will stay away.
That hurt. I think it may be wiser to eat dropped suet from the ground.
Finally I have a bit of peace.
It didn’t take long before the starling wasn’t satisfied with suet droppings and the fight started again.
Finally – as far as I could tell – the fight ended when the starling gave up and the woodpecker ate in peace.
The sparrows at my feeder are always fighting! I have to keep out suet cage closed with a twisty tie so the squirrels don’t run off with the whole cake of suet. One time they even took the cage. We never did find it. Maybe it was a raccoon that took it?
I don’t think we ever had a squirrel run off with a suet cake – or cage.